In the old Mack Sennett, King of Comedy, movies the plot regularly included a car chase between baddies (robbers) and the Keystone Cops. which always started with the robbers roaring out of town, while the cops struggled to get their car started. Loads of banging and chugging and smoke until eventually, and way too late, the cops finally set off in a hapless pursuit.
On Saturday, in glorious sunshine and in front of a large boisterous crowd, Terenure jump-started their smooth rugby machine and were gone out of town before Clontarf could get their engine running.
The tone for the game was set in the opening play. Clontarf kicked off, Nure sliced to touch on the 22, Clontarf just about held the lineout, then went left and right through nine phases, which made no headway and resulted in a jackal turnover on the 22 in front of the posts.
Two minutes later a perfect Nure lineout led to a high tackle in midfield and a 0 3 scoreline. That was increased to 0 6 after the home scrum infringed in midfield.
From the restart, Terenure kicked long and Noah Sheridan threaded a beauty into the visitors 22 for a home lineout. Unfortunately the set piece malfunctioned, Nure ran the ball back up the left and after a few phases their young out half Gabriel punted cross field, where the ball took a fortuitous bounce back into the hands of winger McErlean, who doubled down on his luck with a superbly weighted grubber behind the defence which he chased, gathered and scored for 0 13.
On 22 minutes Nure moved left to right from a scrum and set a phase on the right touch line after an arguable forward pass to winger McErlean. From there the ball went through multiple hands for centre Cosgrave to score on the left for 0 18. Not a happy day for Tarf !
Home spirits were raised on 28 minutes when, after sustained Terenure pressure in the Tarf 22 was relieved by an interception from Noah Sheridan. The ball was dispatched deep into Nure territory where it was knocked on by a defender. From the ensuing scrum Tarf went left to right with accurate passes and Aitzol King was free on the right. Two phases later, Niall Smyth scored for 5 18. That was it for the first half.
Terenure were worth their lead because everything they did was done with pace and accuracy. Clontarf struggled to ground their set piece and without that supply were always chasing the game.
The second half commenced where the first half ended, with Nure pressure and Tarf errors. So when a tackle was missed in the centre, it was a pretty simple hold and pass for winger Adams to be freed for the score down the left. That left it at 5 25 and not much hope left for the home support.
There were flashes of intent. After that score Clontarf dominated possession for a period and managed a try on the left after some accurate set pieces and big carries. It was a taster of what could have been achieved earlier with a little more precision.
Too little too late unfortunately and after Nure added a landed final penalty, the game finished with a score of 10 28 and a well-deserved victory to Terenure.
Clontarf have plenty to work on with a visit to Cork coming up next weekend.
Report Peter Walsh, Photos courtesy of Michael Sheridan